Low priced alternative to Benchmark Dac1

I had the Benchmark DAC1 and sold it and went to a Musical Fidelity A3.24 DAC (Stereophile product of the year a few years back).

You can get them for $550 or so. Very satisfied with the results and you will be hard pressed to do better for the money.

Audio Mirror makes a good sounding DAC. Had one before I got a Benchmark, but I didn't do any A/B comparisons.

Give the Beresford TC 7510 a go...at ~150 bucks is a true bargain. Several of us A/B'd it against the benchmarh USB DAC1 and the benchmark just barely won out (at about 8x the price) -plus, at that price it comes with a digital cable!

Check out the Audio Magus website for the Aelous Audio MagiDAC. Uses transformers for gain instead of op amps or tubes.

The Channel Islands Audio VDA 2 is a great DAC, in fact I think it sounds better than the Benchmark. It is a minimalist design but the build quality is exceptional and it has a fully discrete analog section and very mild digital filtering. It will also accept 24/192 over coax. Additionally I thought that the DAC 1 has too many bells and whistles that I wouldn't use, not mention that it uses op-amps.

The VDA 2 is very dynamic and revealing, you won't believe you're listening to a $600 DAC. Best money I've spent on audio in a long time.